Can Shohei Ohtani bring the show back to LA?

Well, Christmas came early in the MLB world.

The Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes have concluded. After all the commotion that was yesterday surrounding the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Dodgers emerged as the last team standing after the dust cleared.

Ohtani broke the news himself through an Instagram post Saturday afternoon, along with a heartfelt message to Angels fans.

The Dodgers will be paying Shohei Ohtani $700 million over the next 10 years, and it marks the largest contract in American professional sports history. Ohtani will be 38 years old once the contract comes to an end. The deal does not include a no-trade clause and comes with no opt-outs.

Ohtani is coming off a season where he will most likely win his third MVP, finishing the year with an OPS of 1.066 and hitting 44 home runs. Ohtani also tallied 10 wins as a pitcher with a 3.14 ERA.

For the upcoming season, The Dodgers will be without Shohei’s pitching talents while he recovers from an elbow surgery that he underwent towards the end of the 2023 season. However, The Dodgers are hopeful that Ohtani will be ready to bat by opening day.

The two-time MVP will be joining a lineup that already consists of multiple superstars in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Depending on when Ohtani returns to the mound, he’ll be part of a young, promising Dodgers rotation that still has all-star Walker Buehler returning next season.

In 2023, Los Angeles had championship aspirations, but the disappearance of Betts and Freeman in the Divisional Series led to the demise of the NL West champs. The wild-card Arizona Diamondbacks swept the Dodgers in three games, two being in Los Angeles. Betts and Freeman, the two stars of the Dodgers, were a combined 2-21 in the series.

Los Angeles suffered a similar fate in 2022 in which they lost to the wild-card San Diego Padres after winning a franchise single-season record 111 games.

In 2021, the Dodgers made an appearance in the National League championship series but fell short.

Former MVP Clayton Kershaw is aging out, and questions surround his future as the Los Angeles ace. Two-time all-star Walker Buehler will be returning but hasn’t pitched since 2022. J.D Martinez served as a crucial member of the Dodger’s offense in 2023 but will be entering his age 36 season.

In the last three seasons, Los Angeles’ regular season win totals: 106, 111, 100. In the last three postseasons, Los Angeles’ playoff series won: one, zero, zero.

Since winning the World Series in the COVID-shortened season of 2020, the Dodgers have grown accustomed to early exits in the playoffs.

The question going into the 2024 campaign will be if the Dodgers’ new superstar is enough to break the seal. Ohtani has yet to play in an MLB postseason game.

Sketch Morton is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email Sam7539@psu.edu